Alright. So I'm gonna I'm gonna put this phrase up real quick. Quick show of hands. I know some of you aren't hands-raising people, but who's ever said to someone who's asked you a question it's complicated? Yeah, yeah, right? That's a pretty common statement. And sometimes I I use this with my my children, and just so you know, I'm gonna reference my children a lot today because I just spent a whole week with them and it's all very top of mind. Uh so just be prepared for a lot of children references. But but I'll say this to my kids sometimes when they ask me questions that I frankly don't understand. Um a lot of times kids will do this thing where they'll ask you a question and you'll answer it. You know the basic answer, but then they'll ask a deeper question. You maybe you know that one, and then they ask another question, like, this is where my knowledge level ends. And you just have to say, like, it's just kind of complicated. Right? It's a phrase that we use pretty often. But I think it's a phrase we especially use, at least I've I've heard this used many times in conversation with the people that I'm sitting across from. When we have relationships that used to bring us joy, and now there's strength. When we have relationships that used to be light, and they used to bring us a ton of comfort, and now not so much. And we try to wrap our heads around what happened and where did things go wrong, and the answer sometimes all we can come up with is it's just it's complicated. It's complicated. Today we're gonna we're gonna look at a truth that if we grab a hold of this, receive this, it will bring us some much-needed simplicity to our overly complicated world and lives. And so with that said, we're gonna jump right into Romans chapter 1, or sorry, Romans chapter 10, verses 1 through 13. And if you if you want to follow along, we'll have it on the screens. If you have a Bible, you can open there. Uh, also, if you have our mobile app, all the scriptures we reference on on every Sunday are gonna be in that mobile app, you can follow along there. So Romans 10, 1 through 13. Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal, for they don't understand God's way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God's way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. Now, for a little bit of context, the author of this section of scripture that we're studying right now, his name's Paul, and he's a Jewish man, and he's one of the foremost preachers, teachers of Jesus in the world at this time. He's taking the message of Jesus to places it's never been before, and something really interesting is happening, and that is that non-Jewish people are beginning to follow Jesus in greater numbers than Jewish people. Which is kind of odd because Jesus, well, he's the Jewish Messiah, he's the son of the Jewish God that up to that point in history has pretty much exclusively been worshipped and known by the Jewish people. It's really been kind of an ethnic thing for centuries, and now all of a sudden that's changing, and the message of Jesus is going everywhere. And Paul's saying, when it comes to his people, to the Jewish people, that he longs for them to en masse accept Jesus. But many of them aren't, he says, because they're clinging to their their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. And the law refers to all of these laws that God gave Moses to give to the people of Israel right after he rescued them from slavery in Egypt, if you know that story. It goes on to say, for Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. For Moses writes that the law's way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. But faith's way of getting right with God says, don't say in your heart who will go up to heaven to bring Christ down to the earth, and don't say who will go down to the place of the dead to bring Christ back to life again. In fact, it says the message is very close at hand. It is on your lips and in your heart. And that message is the very message about faith that we preach. If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you're made right with God. It is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved, as the scriptures tell us, anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced. Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord who gives generously to all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, this is communicating a very, very simple and very powerful idea. But as you read it, some of the language that's used can throw you for a loop a little bit. You can read some of this stuff and go, wait, wait, what is this actually saying? For example, Romans 10, 6 through 8. This is something we just read, an excerpt. It says, But faith's way of getting right with God says, Don't say in your heart who will go up to heaven, that's to bring Christ down to the earth, and don't say, who will go down to the place of the dead, that is to bring Christ back to life again. In fact, it says the message is very close at hand. It is on your lips and your heart. As you were reading that, maybe during that part you were a little bit stumped. Like, what is what is that saying? What is what is going on? And I want to kind of explain this because this message, what Paul is writing right here, what God is communicating through Paul, it is so powerful, it has the capacity to change our very lives and to give us a simplicity in our relationship with God that we often struggle to live with. Have you ever been around someone who just knows a lot about something you know nothing about? And so when they talk about it, it's like it's like they're speaking a foreign language. I mean, I have that happen a lot because there's a lot of stuff I don't know anything about. Years ago, there was a volunteer here at the church that did a lot of IT work, and uh, and he would explain to me what was what was going on and the things he was working on, and I think he could tell that I knew nothing about this stuff. And so one day he he said, Hey, think about like a train. He said, You know, this is like the engine of the train. And and he begins to explain how this internet thing is working in terms of like data, and and I realized halfway through, like, oh, uh I'm like a child right now, because he's basically saying it's like a choo-choo, you know. Do you know choo-choos? And I'm like, Yeah, I do. I know choo-choo trains. Yeah, okay. So, oh yeah, I was like, oh, I know nothing. Sometimes that happens, right? Or maybe you're someone who doesn't really follow sports, but you're around a group of people and they know sports really well, and they're talking about sports, and you're just like, what are we even saying? You know? Or or maybe it's like, I don't know, politics. You're not someone who follows politics, and you're around people who are really into politics, and they start talking, and you're just like, what is going on? Or you're around anyone who's ever talked about Bitcoin ever. Like, if that's like if you you know what it's like to be like privy to a conversation, but you don't get the references, and so you're a little lost. That's kind of what's happening for a lot of us as we read this right here. Because what Paul is referencing in these verses where he's talking about don't say, don't say, like, who will go up to heaven or who will go down into the depths, because this is this is at hand, this is this is at your heart. He's actually quoting the Old Testament in a scripture that the people he was originally writing to would have all known really, really well. It's just that reference we don't always we don't always get. That's why it's really important, by the way, if you're ever studying the Bible on your own, pay attention to those little letters that'll be next to verses, those cross-references, because it's it's pointing back to things that God has already said, and it's like it's all coming full circle, and you're going, oh, that's what that means. And so Paul's referencing a section in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verses 15 and 16. This is right after Moses has given the people the law, and he says this now listen, today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster, for I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy. So he gives them a command. He says, Love God, do what he says. It's pretty simple. But before he gives them this command, he prefaces it with this statement. Deuteronomy 30, 11 through 14. This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach. It is not kept in heaven so distant that you must ask, who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey? It is not kept beyond the sea so far away that you must ask, who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey? No, the message is very close at hand. It is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it. You see the exact reference that Paul's making in Romans 10. This is basically saying something really simple. Moses is like, hey, I'm about to tell you guys something. I'm about to tell you what to do. But before I tell you, I need you on the front end to realize that you're going to be tempted to overcomplicate it. Don't do that. Don't freak out. Don't get all in a tizzy and make this out to be a bigger deal than it actually is. And as a father, I really understand what Moses is doing here. Because this is something that actually happens in my house a lot. Like, this is a regular thing, I would say at least every three days. I look at our house and I go, This will not do. The mess that has been made. My children are amazing and disgusting. They are just gross sometimes. And like, the just the when they eat, when they eat, where the food goes. Like, give an example. Yesterday, my youngest son Eli wanted a granola bar, a chocolate chip granola bar. And so I gave him one. And what he proceeded to do was to pull out all the chocolate chips. And those melted in his hand. So he has a hand just completely, like you could have painted chocolate on his hand. It was no different. And then all the granola pieces are just all over my couch. And he's just licking his hand like that. He's a human being. Okay? I've raised him. I've not done well. Right? And so it's just, it's, the house just gets super messy. And I'll look at the house sometimes and I'm like, this, this is something has to change. And I know my kids, and I know that when I tell them that we're going to clean, I know what they're going to do in their heads. They're going to start to look at the house, they're going to start to overreact. They're going to go, this is, no, there's no way. They're going to look at everything, and their eyes are going to get really wide, and they're going to start saying things like, this is going to take hours. This is going to take all day. This is impossible. And I know it's not. I know this is like 15 minutes of mostly me working. But, you know, like, I know that. And so I'll have a pre-conversation. I'll say, hey guys, I'm about to tell you something that we need to do. And then my oldest he'll start to panic. I'm like, stop, stop it. Calm down. Don't hyperventilate. My oldest hyperventilates when I have this conversation. My daughter just holds her breath. She just goes. I'm like, breathe. Stop breathing, breathe. Okay? Haven't even said what we're going to do. Look, we're going to clean the house. But but calm down. Calm down. At this point, one of them is screaming. I say, it's it looks bad. I know it looks really bad. I know you're probably looking at this thinking this is going to take forever, but it's not, because number one, I'm going to help you. Number two, if we work together, I think at most this is 15, 20 minutes. So let's go. I have this pre-conversation to tell them do not, do not complicate this. Do not pretend or let yourself get so uh messed up in the head that you convince yourself that this is an impossible task, because it really isn't. That is what Moses is saying in Deuteronomy before he gives this command. Don't overcomplicate this. Don't do that. Don't make this harder than it needs to be. But that warning doesn't really work. Because the reason that it's complicated so often in our life is really simple. We're complicated. God isn't complicated. God is complex. There's a difference. God is incredibly complex. But we're both complex and complicated. Complicated is kind of a negative version of complex, right? Like when we have a problem, we never call it a complexity. We call it a complication. Like we run into a complication. It's a difficulty. We often find ourselves struggling with ourselves. God doesn't struggle with himself. He doesn't ever ask himself, why do I do this? Why do I keep doing this? It's not a conversation God has with himself. He's different than us. He's like us, we're like him in the sense that he created us to be like him, but we're kind of complicated. And so we have this tendency to complicate everything. To take really simple things and make them unnecessarily complicated. Another example from my home. This maybe seems like an indictment on me as a father, and maybe it is. But uh bedtime. Bedtime has become an incredibly complicated part of my day. And I realize right now, I think I'm just venting personally a little bit, but you guys are good people. Got the messes, and like someone's like, Justin needs a break. Maybe I do. Okay, it was Thanksgiving week, they're all off school, and it's been awesome. I'm so grateful. But but I put our youngest two to bed, they share a room. My five-year-old son, my three-year-old son, they share a room together. So bedtime is a joined thing. And over the last year, the the steps that have to be taken toward bed have just gotten out of control. Like I have to make a change, but I don't know if I have the courage to. And so, you know, there's the normal stuff. There's brushing your teeth and getting in your pajamas and all that kind of stuff. But what I've always done, or there's always been some type of story, either a Bible story, I read a book, something like that. There's a song, because they want me to sing to them, and then there's a prayer. But a few months ago, the song that I typically sing, my my older of the two decided he didn't want that song. But my younger really wanted that song, and so that night, and what I thought was for that night only, I would just do two songs. I'm like, fine, because I just want him to go to bed. You know, you just run out of energy. And you're like, fine, okay, I'll sing your song, I'll sing your song, can we be done? And so I didn't realize in doing that that I was forever committing to singing two songs. But I was. And so I sang Eli his song, I sang Judah his song. And then just about a week ago, I was struggling with the story. They didn't want to read any of their books, and it was when it comes to the Bible stories, they're like, we know that one, we know that one. So I just in a moment of exhaustion just go, I guess, okay, I'm just gonna make up a story. And so I told them the story of a bear named Bebo. That's what came to my mind. And Bebo the bear doesn't really want to be a bear. He wishes he was a person, and so he tries to do person things, but it doesn't go well, and so he's just like, I'm just should probably be a bear. That's the whole story. It wasn't a very good story, wasn't well thought through. I was just making it up as I went along, and to be honest, it didn't even have a very good resolution. Like it just sort of ended. Like, and that and then Bebo just went back to the forest. Like, that's what I said. But my children, my my boys decided that we love Bebo the bear. And so now every night I have to make up a story about a bear and and the hijinks he gets into, and now I have to also tell them what the Bebo story uh tomorrow night will be. And so this week, Bebo has gone to school, he's been in an airplane, he was pulled over by a police officer. Um, it's been a lot. And tonight, because I had to make this up last night, they're like, what is Bebo gonna do tomorrow? I'm like, Bebo's gonna swim in a neighborhood pool, you know? Like, I don't know. Like, every night. So I've got two songs. I have this Bebo character that I've invented that now I have to keep this going, and then I have to say goodnight. But my youngest son, who just he he has to have me say goodnight in every human human, like every way humanly possible. So I say goodnight, and then he says, goodnight. And then he says, see ya, and I have to say see ya. And then he says, see you tomorrow, and I say see you tomorrow. And then he says, see you later, alligator, and I say, see you later, alligator. And then he says, after a while, crocodile, and I say, after a while, crocola. And and usually it ends with like I'm doing this like I'm as I'm walking out the door. I'm like, after a while, yeah, see ya. All right, yeah. And then he still yells through the door, love you, and I'm like, I love you. And he's like, see you tomorrow. I'm like, stop. It's enough. You are loved. Now shut up and go to bed. Like that is clearly every night, right? And that's just that's bedtime. That's what it's become. That's how I end every day of my life right now. I love it. I'm I'm blessed. But it's it's become complicated. Why? Because we're complicated. Like they did that, and I allowed it to happen. And if you guys wouldn't mind emailing me some Bebo ideas, just write a few of those. Just write me an email, make up a story about Bebo the Bear, and I'll just read it, and then I'll make my life wonderful. It's probably gonna happen. All right. But we're complicated, right? We take simple things and we we just make it really difficult. And so you want a great example of that that's a little bit more uh biblical. Just look at what the nation of Israel did with the law. Now, when when Moses gave the people the law that God gave him, there were 613 rules. It starts off with the first ten, the ten commandments, and those are actually pretty basic. I heard a pastor once describe them this way, and it's really helpful. It's not like it's the high point of human living, it's not like the highest of human achievement, it's just the lowest bar possible. Just don't kill each other. Don't like it's it's that stuff. But even then, we live in a world where we can't even do that. And so God, He expands the law and He gives them all kinds of rules for life, and it's easy sometimes to look at those 613 laws and be like, oh, that's a lot. That's like how in the world could people keep track of that? But but actually, it's not, it's really not that big of a deal when you think about it. Because, first of all, we live with so many laws on a daily basis. We don't we don't number them, we don't know how many, but we have way more than 613 laws that we follow as a nation today. Just think about driving alone. Think about how many laws there are related to driving. You know, there's laws for how fast you can go, how far you should be away from other vehicles. At night you've got to turn your lights on, in certain situations you might need to use your brights, but not in other situations. When can you pass another vehicle? When can you not pass another vehicle? There's blinkers which are optional in Georgia, but you know, apparently. And so, like there's there's so many laws just related to driving. And so the 613 laws that God gives the nation of Israel, they're yeah, it's a lot, but but not really when you think about how we all live our lives and all the laws that we have around us all the time. And most of those laws, by the way, were like incredibly situation-specific. Things that were really never going to impact your day-to-day life. But in certain situations, you need to know these things. This is what you would do if this happens. That was most of the law. But as far as your everyday, day-to-day living, it was really simple. And that's why Moses says, guys, don't get bent out of shape and don't overcomplicate this, and don't act like this is some impossible task that no one can do. Just love God and do what he says. And it's gonna work really, really well. But over time, the religious leaders of the Jewish people did what religious leaders do, they just make things really complicated. Religion loves complicated things. Like religion loves to make things unnecessarily complicated. And over time, this happened in a way that was just maddening. So, for example, there's there's this command in the Old Testament, it's one of the Ten Commandments. And it's to honor the Sabbath, to keep that day holy. And what God had told the people was on the Sabbath, one day a week, don't work. Rest. Take a day off, worship God. God invented days off. That's true. That didn't exist in history. People didn't take days off. They lived every single day. You worked every single day. But God actually invented the weekend. Can we give God a little bit of credit and appreciation for God invented weekends, right? But he just said, don't work. Now, as time went on, the religious leaders of of the nation of Israel tried to say, well, yeah, but we need it to be more specific. Like what is work? What classifies as work? And the answer should have just been whatever you don't want to do. But it got way more complicated. By the time Jesus arrives on the scene, they had created 39 categories of what classified as work, and under each category, there were all kinds of subcategories. So for example, for example, if you're a doctor and someone was hurt on the Sabbath, you were allowed to ensure that they didn't get worse. So if they were bleeding, you could like stop the bleeding. But you were not allowed to treat them so that they might get better. That would be work. So you'd be like, all right, you're not bleeding anymore, come back tomorrow because I can't help you because it's the Sabbath, which seems odd, you know? There were rules about how far you you could walk before it was classified as work. And so let's say on the Sabbath you wanted to walk to a friend's house to spend the day with them, to have you know a meal together and enjoy your day off. Nope. If they live too far away, that's considered work. You're only allowed to take a certain number of steps on the Sabbath. That's what they came up with. Or let's say, for example, you had an apple tree in your backyard and you were hungry, and you're like, I'm gonna go pick one of those apples. They look great and eat it. Nope, that is harvesting. That is work. And the religious leaders said, You can't do that on the Sabbath. It gets so complicated. And then Jesus shows up and he has no room for this. And so, for example, Mark chapter 2 says, one Sabbath day, as Jesus was walking through some grain fields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath? Jesus said to them, Haven't you ever read in the scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went to the house of God during the days when Abiathar was high priest, and he broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread, and only the priests were allowed to eat those. He also gave some to his companions. And then Jesus said to them, The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath. Jesus says, look, you guys have made this way too complicated. God made the Sabbath, he invented the day off to bless you, you guys have turned it into work. As if God had created you so that you could meet the requirements of the Sabbath. You've got it all wrong. Jesus greatly simplified the Sabbath that day. People in Jesus' day were really struggling with what to do about taxes because, in their mind, if they paid taxes to the Roman government, that would be like worshiping the Roman government. And then maybe they weren't really worshiping God, and there was all this commotion about what to do with taxes. So Mark chapter 12 says later the leaders sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. Teacher, they said, we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don't play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully, and Jesus is sitting there just like, yeah, okay. He knows what they're there to do. Now tell us, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or shouldn't we? Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin, and I'll tell you. And when they handed it to him, he asked, Whose picture and title are stamped on it? Caesar's, they replied, Well, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God. And his reply completely amazed them. It was so simple. He's like, Oh, this has Caesar's picture on it. Give it back to him. That's really simple. Right? And they're just mad. They're like, ah, ah, it's so good. But he simplified things. Mark chapter 12, verses 28 through 31. One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked of all the commandments, which is the most important. Jesus replied, The most important commandment is this: listen, O Israel, the Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these. Jesus took 613 commands and boiled it down to two. Love God and love people. And there's really nothing that you could do in both of those categories that wouldn't be directly tied to any of the laws that God had given people. Some of those laws were about how to honor God, some of those laws were about how to honor people. Jesus simplified things. We have to remember this that Jesus simplifies. He does not complicate. He simplifies. God is far more simple in his approach with us than we often think. I'm not saying that God is simple. Like we said earlier, he's complex. But in terms of his approach with us, he's simple. If you want an example of that, if you need that to be proven to you, go back to the story of the garden. If you know that story, God creates people and he puts them in a garden. And how many rules does he give them? One. And if you say, well, then why did he give him 613 later? It's because that was after people had complicated life greatly. In God's original design, one is all you need. Hey, just avoid that. That won't work out. By the time we've been in charge for a while and we've done our thing and we've created our governments and our world, he's like, all right, now you have 613. But God has a very simple approach with us. And Jesus simplifies. So with that said, I want to go back to Romans chapter 10 again. I want to read what we read earlier, and I want you to think about it through the lens of God saying, hey, don't overcomplicate this. Don't try to make this out to be harder or bigger than it is, and don't add to it. Don't complicate it. Just receive it with its simplicity and follow it. Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal, for they don't understand God's way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God's way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God. Does anybody believe in God? Does anybody believe in Jesus? Anybody just want to raise your hand and make that known? Anybody believe in Jesus Christ? Okay. You have been made right with God. Period. It says, all who believe are made right with God. For Moses writes that the law's way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. But faith's way of getting right with God says, don't say in your heart who will go up to heaven. That's to bring Christ down to earth. And don't say who will go down to the place of the dead to bring Christ back to life again. In fact, it says the message is very close at hand. It is on your lips and in your heart. Don't overcomplicate it. That's what it's saying. And that message is the very message about faith that we preach. If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you're made right with God. It is by openly declaring your faith that you're saved. And as the scriptures tell us, anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced. Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord who gives generously to all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Paul is saying, don't overcomplicate this. It's very simple. If you believe in Jesus and you put your trust in him, you are good with God. When even the things that in our minds are here can be lost. Or even the people that we put our trust in, and we think that they'll never let us down, do how beautiful is it to know that there is one relationship that is never in jeopardy, that there is one relationship that is not fragile, it is not physical, there is nothing that you can do to mess it up, and it's your relationship with God. Because if you believe in Jesus, it's as simple as that. If you believe in Jesus and you declare that he is your savior, that you've given your life to him, you're right with God. That doesn't mean that if you had a bad day yesterday, or you've had a rough year, or you're in a season where because of all the things you've dealt with, you're just struggling that God is somehow less okay with you. He's good with you. You're good with him. It is not fragile, it is certain. And the only requirement is to believe in Jesus. Jesus has simplified our relationship with God so much. So the challenge for us is to not complicate what Jesus has made simple. And this is a challenge because we're complicated, right? It's a challenge as a church, to be honest. There have been so many times in the past where even meaning well, we've we've maybe made things more complicated than they need to be. And we have to stop and kind of go back into the drawing board when that happens. In fact, I remember about a year ago there were some people that were meeting with me and they met well, but their thought was, hey, we should have a class that people should have to take before they're baptized. Because we just don't want people to get baptized and not know like what they're doing, and and so we should people, when they want to get baptized, should take the class and then they'll really understand it. And I get I get that. And when people say they want to get baptized, we have a conversation with every single one of them, and we actually send them a video that sort of explains all the all the ins and outs of that. If they if they want to watch that, we encourage that. But while the idea for a class was well intended, I'm like, no, we we can't do that because that would be us adding a step that Jesus never required. That's us making something that Jesus made really simple, really complicated. You know, today we have several people that are gonna get baptized in just a few minutes, which is awesome. Excited about it. In fact, you know, worship team, if you guys want to make your way out so we can get ready for that, that'd be awesome. And and what they're doing is really simple, it's not complicated. They've put their faith in Jesus and now they're getting baptized. And I love that God asks us to do something like get dunked in water because we can be like, why? What's the point of that? And God might say, Don't worry about it. Is it hard? No, it's not. It's simple. You don't even have to dunk yourself. Someone does it for you. It's great. It's simple. Don't take what God has made simple and make it complicated. And this is really important. This is so important for us. You know, it's interesting that that phrase that Paul uses that would bring that would be to bring Christ down, he said. As I was preparing for the Sunday, I was reminded of a conversation that um I had with my pastor when I was I was 19 years old. And I was uh volunteering a lot at the church we were at. I was getting to know the pastor, and one day I was explaining to him just a struggle I was having and how I was trying to respond and really prove to God that I was serious about dealing with the issue. I had an addiction that I was fighting through and and I was just failing left and right. And so I was I was just trying to really like express. I mean, I mean it this time. I'm I'm doing everything I can. And my pastor Roy actually emailed him just a few days ago because I hadn't thought about this story in a while, but every time I think about it, it impacts me. Roy is a very direct man. And uh he's a northerner, you know, he's Kansas City, Missouri. We just don't beat around the bush there. We just tell you like it is. He said, you know, Justin, maybe what you ought to do is just pray and say, Jesus, thank you for getting on the cross, but why don't you come down and let me go up and finish the job? And I was like, Oh, that doesn't sound good. You know? He said, No, seriously, Justin, you the way you approach God, it's it's as if what Jesus did was almost enough, but not quite. And he needs you to kind of go ahead and finish it, to prove that you're really worthy of forgiveness. And he was right. It's exactly what I did all the time. Still do sometimes. Struggle to really truly believe that Jesus' work on the cross, his finished work, because that's what he said on the cross. He said, it is finished. To really struggle to believe that that's true. And that it's not, it's not on me to do something else, to do a little bit better, to go a little bit harder, and then maybe then I'll finally just show God, hey, you can trust me and we're good, right? God, are we good? Don't complicate what Jesus made simple. If you put your faith in him, you're good with God. Rest in that, rest in that. It's those other relationships in life that are hard and complicated. Like, put your attention on those. But your attention with God, like, it's just on the fact that He's good with you. So enjoy it. Celebrate that. When you have drama in some other relationship in your life, just say, ooh, Lord, I don't know what to do here. This is driving me crazy, but I'm so glad I have no drama in my relationship with you. There's no drama with God. He loves you, he died for you. If you put your faith in him, you're good, and that's that's the end of the story. Nothing can change it. It's that simple. So don't complicate it. Don't add to it. Don't put any of it on yourself. Don't ask Jesus to come down so that you can somehow finish the job. It's finished. Don't complicate what Jesus made simple. That was an amazing sneeze. Whoever did that. That was like perfectly timed, it was great. I'm not trying to pick on it, it was just awesome. Sorry. One final thing. You know, because of what Jesus has done, we have to work really hard to keep it simple in our own lives as well. And so, if we want to go back to that original statement that we had, it's complicated. Our relationship with God should be such that it impacts our relationships with others. Our relationship with God should inspire us in terms of how we engage with the people in our lives. And so sometimes when it comes to our earthly relationships, there is drama, right? It is complicated because we're complicated. My relationship with God is simple, but sometimes my relationship with others is not so much. And so, what do you do when relationships, like I said earlier, that used to bring you joy, that used to be really simple, that used to just be free and light and fun, now not so much? Maybe that's a relationship you have with a child, maybe it's a relationship you have with your parent, maybe it's a close friend, maybe it's a spouse. What do you do when those relationships get complicated? Well, it's it's you simplify. Like what do you do when something is complicated? You simplify it. And so I want to finish with just really quick, something really practical, I hope. As I was praying, these three words just kept coming to my mind as far as how we simplify the complicated relationships in our lives. Because it's good for us to enjoy the simplicity of our relationship with God and the certainty of that, but we want to see that spread to all the relationships we have. Because Jesus connects our relationship with God and our relationship with people, right? He says that the most important commandment is to love God with all your heart, but also to love your neighbor as yourself. So we want to see our relationship with God have an impact on our relationship with others. And if God has gone to great lengths to simplify our relationship with Him and to eliminate the drama, then we need to be willing to go to lengths to simplify our relationship with others. So what do you do when you have those it's complicated relationships? Well, number one, you admit. You just admit that maybe you've made a little bit of a mess. Or you've at least contributed to it. I always know which of my children has made the mess because it's when I ask who made this mess, whichever one is silent. That is the one that made the mess, right? But we all make mess. Like we all do. Every single one of us makes a mess. In fact, as a father, I've had this happen before where Megan will look at something and assume it was the kids that made the mess and be like, who did this? And I'm like, it was me, you know. All of us are messy. And so every single one of us has in some way probably contributed to a complication in a relationship. And if you want to simplify that, step one is just to be willing to admit that you've contributed to the mess. There's a humility in that. God honors humility. And if you can say, hey, I'm sorry for sorry for complicating things. Sorry for my part in that. That's a huge step. Number two, you affirm. You affirm what's true. And so if it's your child, you affirm you are mine, you are my son, you are my daughter. I love you. I love you. I'll always love you. You affirm that truth. If it's a parent, you say, I love you. God put me in in your care. And I know that I know that you love me. You affirm what's true. If it's your spouse, sometimes that relationship gets really complicated. You affirm what's true. We're married. You said yes to me. But listen, I said yes to you. I said yes to you. I'm committed to you. I love you. Love is not a feeling, it's an action. There's a well-known author who once asked what to what he would say that to he works with a lot of men. If men ever said, I'm not in love with my wife anymore, he would just say, Well, then love them. Because love isn't a feeling, it's an action. You affirm what's true. Finally, you forgive, and Arthur, I do forgive you. Oh, you forgive. You want to simplify a relationship? You forgive. You honestly, quickly and completely, like Jesus does. You forgive. And you can you can have someone who's hurt you deeply. You can have someone who's who's messed things up and made your life a lot harder. And you can simultaneously know that that that's all true. That yes. But when you forgive someone, and you mean it, it's like it's like a burden being lifted off your shoulders. So if you want to say, okay, how can I have the simplicity of my relationship with God extend to the relationships that I have with others, to maybe some of those it's complicated relationships, and admit that you've helped to make the mess. At least start by admitting that to yourself. Affirm who they are, affirm your commitment to them, your love for them, your desire to be right with them. Even if that's just you saying, I want us to be good. I want that. Affirm that desire and forgive. Forgive passionately, aggressively, completely. You do those three things, you simplify the complicated. That's what God does with us. That's what we need to do with others. So, with that said, let's pray. Father God, thank you for this day. Thank you, Lord, for every person who's here today. Thank you for everyone who's watching from home, Lord. I'm so grateful for this church. I love this place. Most of all, I love you. I know that you love us. Lord, you're so good to us. You're so faithful to us. And Father, I pray that, number one, in response to what we've talked about today, that we would enjoy the simplicity of a relationship that we have with you. That we would just enjoy the fact that you have simplified what used to be complicated, that it's not about our ability to follow a bunch of rules, that it's not about how we've performed in the last day, week, month, year, you name it, God. It's simply this if we believe in you, you're good with us. If we declare our faith in you, we're good with you. Nothing can change that. Thank you, Lord, for simplifying that. And Lord, when it comes to our relationships, when it comes to all the relationships that we have that get complicated because we're complicated, because we're all complicated, God. Lord, I pray that you give us the ability, the discernment, and the courage, frankly, Lord, to simplify those complications. To admit where we've maybe gone wrong, to have the humility to admit that, not just to ourselves, but to others as well. Lord, to affirm what we know is true. And Lord, to forgive as completely as you forgive to the best of our ability. And Lord, we're gonna need you to do that. That's something that can only really happen through the power of your spirit inside of us. Our efforts aren't aren't enough for that. But Lord, help us be people who can admit, affirm, and forgive and simplify all the complications. We pray this in your name of Jesus. Amen.